Activist raises environmental questions at rail meeting

FALL RIVER — South Coast Rail officials got into a dispute Tuesday with environmental activist Kyla Bennett over how much land would be safe from development associated with the project.

ARIEL WITTENBERG

FALL RIVER — South Coast Rail officials got into a dispute Tuesday with environmental activist Kyla Bennett over how much land would be safe from development associated with the project.

At a public update on the rail project, Bennett questioned the assertion that more than 176,800 acres of land would be protected as part of it.

Bennett argued that the state's designating an area as "priority protection area" does not actually do anything to prevent development there.

"You can't guarantee that I can visit these areas and they will always be protected," said Bennett who directs Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "Planning to protect them is fine, but the way you communicate this is disingenuous."

She gave the example that though the Hockomock Swamp in Stoughton is technically a "priority protection area" all-terrain vehicles go through the swamp all the time on the weekends.

South Coast Rail Director Jean Fox disputed Bennett's claims, saying the ATVs mainly traverse the swamp using the old rail bed that has not been used since the 1960s. Once South Coast Rail is operational, she said, that way would no longer be accessible to the ATVs.

The areas were designated for protection as part of a "smart growth" initiative associated with the rail project. The initiative aims to ensure that local communities are ready for whatever economic development the rail may bring. In addition to listing priority protection areas, the initiative also prioritized areas for development.

Overall, the amount of land being listed as a protection priority has actually increased since 2008, according to state statistics.

Victor Negrete, regional planning manager for the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, said that's because the state has since gone back and taken a second look at parcels that had been slated as priority development areas, and made sure that those parcels did not include areas that should instead be preserved.

The result was a 13 percent increase in the amount of land being listed for protection and a 63 percent decrease in the amount being listed for development.

Some of those areas are close together. For example, Wareham is looking at how to both revitalize its Main Street while protecting the natural beauty of the Wareham River that runs adjacent to it, said Sal Pina, executive director of Community and Economic Development Authority there.

New Bedford City Planner Jill Maclean said that municipalities should not depend on the state to protect priority areas in their community.

"Every community has to step up and put some skin in the game," she said. "Everyone has to come out and engage their own community to adopt whatever appropriate zoning measures there are or to go after whatever grants there are.

"It is up to the communities to activate themselves, we can't put all the responsibility on the state," she said.